The Ward

MOVIE REVIEW

Master of shock turns predictable

July 08, 2011|By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff

Amber Heard burns down a farmhouse and is institutionalized in John Carpenters… (ARC Entertainment )

THE WARD Directed by: John Carpenter

Written by: Michael

and Shawn Rasmussen

Starring: Amber Heard,

Mamie Gummer, Danielle

Panabaker, and Jared Harris

At: Liberty Tree Mall, Danvers

Running time: 88 minutes

Rated: R (slashings, stabbings, electrocutions, ghouls,

and one long but discreet shower sequence)

Go on and try, but no one watching “The Ward’’ will ever believe it’s set at an asylum. I mean, the hard, clinical air stinks of mental hospital. But it’s pure sorority house. The head doctor (Jared Harris) has no idea what Kristen (Amber Heard) is doing there. She did burn down a farmhouse, but she was also wearing a teddy. Kristen’s locked up with a group of pert, young coed-like patients who attack each other with cattiness. Later, when half of them go missing the staff doesn’t seem to notice. The hospital business is a pretext for the group-shower sequence (“huh-huh-huh-huh huuuuuh,’’ coo the female voices on the soundtrack) where a ghoulish hand reaches out to wring Kristen’s neck. Oh my God, wring mine!

Even by the standards of mental-institution-movie misogyny, what an accidental but predictable creepshow this is. There’s none of the usual prurient interest in these women, just a dutiful determination to impale, fry, and slice them up. The 1960s setting is a license to bask in the stigma of a female nuthouse. Even so, despite the presence of a shrink, very little psychologizing gets done. I’m afraid the desperate trick ending doesn’t count. “The Ward’’ is just a lot of actors - Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mika Boorem, and poor Mamie Gummer - attempting their best “Girl, Interrupted’’ impersonation. Zach Snyder’s otherwise unclean “Sucker Punch’’ at least had fun hypnotizing marionettes into believing they’re freethinking warriors. “The Ward’’ operates by checklist.

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